Hi Blog. We have some positive movements regarding the treatment of hate speech in Japan, particularly regarding that “Kill all Koreans” hate demo that took place last February (god bless the ensuing gaiatsu of international attention for making the GOJ finally take some action to deal with this deservedly embarrassing incident). First, the Asahi reports that one of the participants in the Zaitokukai hate demo named Akai Hiroshi was arrested by the police, for violent bodily contact with a person protesting Zaitokukai activities.

Police have arrested a 47-year-old man who took part in a regularly held anti-Korean demonstration in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, for allegedly assaulting another man protesting the rally.

The man arrested Monday identified himself as Hiroshi Akai, an unemployed former Self-Defense Force member from Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture. Akai said he had “accidentally bumped into” the other man, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

Police allege Akai hurled himself at the 51-year-old company employee Sunday evening after the protest in Shinjuku. He was held by riot police who were guarding the demonstration.

Rightwing groups, including one claiming to be “citizens who do not condone privileges given to Koreans in Japan,” have been staging demonstrations several times a month in Shinjuku and nearby Shin-Okubo, home to a large ethnic Korean population.
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The good news, however, is that we’re hearing about these events at all (discrimination often goes ignored in the J-media if its against NJ). Also good news is that the authorities are taking measures against them, as seen in this sign sent to me yesterday by AP:

(Taken in Sekime-Seiiku Station in the Osaka area, May 20, 2013.)

The sign reads: A bright society where people respect each others’ human rights. Let’s stop scrawling discriminatory GRAFFITI that will hurt people’s hearts. If you notice any discriminatory graffiti, let us know (addendum: let a station attendant know). Signed, Osaka City Citizens’ Bureau.

Submitter AP writes: “I talked to the 駅長 as well. I said I don’t know what lead to posting that message, but as a foreigner in Japan I sometimes face 差別 and understand why this kind of thing is important to address, and thanked him. He seemed appreciative as well.”

Good. Then maybe people are realizing that this sort of thing affects everyone in society, not just some guest foreigners whose lives and feelings have no connection with ours. These are positive developments. Arudou Debito

“Kenkan” (嫌韓) might be translated as “hating Korea” but my impression is that “kenkan” is actually a softer expression (one that sounds less repugnant and uncivilized) than “hankan” (反韓). I say this because I remember the talk in the 1990s about the rise in “kenbei” (嫌米) sentiment — disaffection with the United States.

I might be wrong about this and will be interested to hear what others think — particularly native speakers. One thing, however, that I am more confident about is that expressions like “kenkan” (disliking Korea) and “kenbei” (disliking the U.S.) don’t seem to have equivalents for foreign protests that are directed at Japan. I have never heard, for example, of “kennichi” (嫌日) demonstrations in China. I just searched for 嫌日 on Google and all of the hits that I found were actually 反日.

At any rate, I wonder what is behind the Sankei’s choice of characters and what connection that choice may have to their right-wing sympathies.

You need to be more persistent with your googling. I found 270,000 hits for “嫌日” and 20,500 for “嫌日デモ” specifically.
While I claim no expertise in Japanese, I believe I know enough to say that, for example, “反韓”implies opposition to the Korean state (the government, its policies, the military) whereas “嫌韓” expresses a hatred of the Korean people themselves.
It’s less a case of degree of dislike than it is of the target of that dislike.
But I’m no native speaker. I’d be interested to hear what others think.

PHOTO: Demonstrators in Tokyo wave national and Rising Sun flags during an April
21 protest against ethnic Koreans living in Japan. Such protests have
increased in size and frequency, alarming some political leaders.

TOKYO—As Japanese nationalism is fueled by friction with neighbors over
territories and World War II legacy issues, hostile demonstrations against
the country’s Korean residents are gathering steam, raising concerns among
political leaders and setting off soul-searching among Japan’s largely
homogeneous population.

While attendance at the rallies is small and such extreme actions are far
from entering the mainstream of Japanese politics, the demonstrations of
nationalist activists using hate speech and intimidation have grown in
size and frequency in recent months. One target has been the central Tokyo
neighborhood of Shin-Okubo, known for Korean restaurants and shops selling
South Korean pop-culture goods. Starting in February, groups of 200 or so
demonstrators have descended on its busy weekend streets, waving Japanese
flags and carrying signs that read “Roaches” and “Go Back to Korea.” They
shouted in unison: “Let’s Kill Koreans,” language that passersby told
local television they found shocking.

Similar, though smaller, rallies have been held every weekend across
Japan. While the demonstrations have raised tensions, there have been no
reports of violence, beyond a handful of minor scuffles.

Alarmed, some lawmakers have started calling for new regulation to ban
hate speech, a term unfamiliar to most in Japan where immigration is
tightly controlled and racial and ethnic minorities—mostly descendants of
Koreans brought to Japan before and during World War II—account for less
than 1% of the population.

“When they started shouting ‘Kill Koreans’ on the streets early this year,
I knew they had crossed the line,” said Yoshifu Arita, an opposition
lawmaker leading a debate in parliament along with a dozen colleagues.
“This is something we can’t overlook,” he added in an interview.

Animosities this week have been further fueled by comments from Osaka
Mayor Toru Hashimoto that sex slaves who served Japanese soldiers before
and during World War II were a “necessary” part of war. The remarks drew
protests from both South Korea and China.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose nationalistic policies are praised by
conservative voters while alarming Japan’s neighbors, described the
phenomenon as “extremely regrettable” in parliamentary testimony this
month. Last week, his own wife, Akie, became a victim of anti-Korea
harassment. After Mrs. Abe posted on Facebook on May 9 that she
had enjoyed watching the South Korean musical “Caffeine,” her page was
inundated with critical comments.

The emergence of openly racist sentiments come as Japan finds itself mired
in thorny disagreements with China and South Korea over territories and
Japan’s role in World War II. Combined with the erosion of the nation’s
economic prowess, they have fueled bitterness and insecurity among many of
its people. A poll jointly released this month by Japan’s Genron NPO and
South Korea’s East Asia Institute showed that 40% of Japanese and 47% of
South Korean respondents said bilateral ties had deteriorated over the
past year. Overall, 37% of respondents in Japan and 77% in South Korea
said they had negative images of the other nation.

Last week, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye delivered stinging
criticism of Japanese leaders while she was in Washington, saying “those
who are blind to the past cannot see the future.”

To be sure, rallies in Japan touting extreme racism are small and free of
physical violence. By comparison, antinuclear rallies seen in Japan after
the 2011 nuclear accident in Fukushima drew tens of thousands of
protesters. In China, as tensions heightened over disputed islands last
year, anti-Japan sentiment led to the burning of Japanese-owned businesses
and the harassing of Japanese tourists. In South Korea, anti-Japan
protesters recently burned Japanese flags and an effigy of Mr. Abe.

While Japan’s constitution protects foreigners’ human rights and police
can arrest demonstrators using verbal intimidation, Japan has few
effective tools and regulations to control hate speech and extreme forms
of racial discrimination, experts say. Their small size has left members
of the minority population with little political clout and much of the
rest of the population seemingly indifferent, analysts say.

“As a result, human-rights violations against foreigners have been
tolerated in some ways,” said Akira Maeda, a law professor at Tokyo Zokei
University specializing in issues around hate speech.

In 2010, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination urged Japan to adopt a law to ban hate speech, citing
“continued incidence of explicit and crude statements and actions” against
children attending Korean schools and other groups. Tokyo responded by
citing a possible conflict with the freedom of expression guaranteed by
its constitution. (The U.S. takes a similar position on rallies targeting
specific groups.) It added, “The government of Japan does not believe that
in present-day Japan racist thoughts are disseminated, and racial
discrimination are fanned to the extent that would warrant” such a new
law.

Many of the virulent rallies are organized by a conservative group called
Zaitokukai and organizations that are sympathetic to it. The group was
formed in 2006 to protest against “special privileges,” such as welfare
payments, that it says are abused by ethnic Koreans, who make up 45% of
foreign permanent residents in Japan. Its membership has grown to 13,000
from 10,000 two years ago, according to its website. Unlike Japan’s
traditional right-wing organizations that have gathered members through
grass-root groups, Zaitokukai relies on the Internet to attract members.
Videos of its rallies and speeches are made available on YouTube and used
as a recruitment tool.

“They used to contain their toxic language to a corner of cyberspace. But
recently, they’ve brought it out in the open by calling it active
conservatism. They are now showering those hurtful words on us,” Seo
Sa-Hwang, president of the Korean Youth Association in Japan, a group
representing 2,000 permanent residents of South Korean descent.
“Increasingly, we are worried that our lives may be in danger,” said the
33-year-old Mr. Seo, who has lived in Japan all his life.

Zaitokukai officials say the group’s rallies are aimed at “getting Japan
back in the hands of the Japanese” from foreigners who are harming them.
“Many Japanese are losing their lives because of crimes committed by
Korean residents. Murder. Robbery. Arson. Serious crimes as they please,”
Said Makoto Sakurai, Zaitokukai’s leader, at a rally held Sunday in
Kawasaki, a town near Tokyo known for a large ethnic Korean population:
“We are just saying that people who don’t like Japan should go back to
their own country. What part of that is hate speech?”

Fearful that they may get snared into violent fight, Korean residents’
groups have so far kept their distance from the rallies. After extensive
discussions among members and experts, Mr. Seo’s group recently put out a
statement protesting against what they termed xenophobia and “words and
action that incite racism.”

Some 50 protesters—largely men who appeared to be in their 30s and
40s—were at the Sunday rally in front of a shopping mall by a busy
suburban train station. One young man held a sign warning of a “murder
date” for ethnic Korean city employees. A middle-aged woman, with a stem
of a Mother’s Day carnation sticking out from her purse, carried a sign:
“Sever diplomatic ties with South Korea.”

Separated from them by double walls of 100 or so police officers were a
group of “counteraction” protesters, shouting “Racists” and “Shame on
you.” One man in his 20s, carrying a tote bag with a “No Nukes” logo, held
high a photo of Prime Minister Abe with a finger pointing toward the
anti-Korea group. “Extremely Regrettable,” it read.

A few hundred passersby—young couples pushing strollers, seniors with
shopping bags—looked on from a safe distance.

Thanks Joe! My impression about 嫌韓 and 反韓 may have been off the mark. After rechecking Google I came to the conclusion that 嫌日 is slightly more that 1% as often on the web as 反日. My impression from TV would be less than 1%. I was taken aback by the expression 嫌韓 but it probably isn’t significant after all.

Thanks, Debito, for the Wall Street Journal article. Interesting reading! However, the “To be sure, rallies in Japan touting extreme racism are small and free of physical violence” is not correct, as is obvious from your arrest you are reporting in this post and from some videos available on YouTube.

Unfortunately, the guy was released the following day… but it’s a start…

According to this article, 2000 people showed up as counter protestors… but I think that’s waaaay too much of an overestimate. Probably about 400 people showed up at most. You can watch the 5/19 新大久保デモ on YouTube. What’s sure is that there are more and more growing number of counter protestors, while the number of Zaitokukai protestors are shrinking:

The GOOD thing about this “anti-Korea” protests is that it has sparked a small but vibrant anti-racism movement on Twitter. You can only look around on Twitter. I think that it has the potential to become a genuine grassroots movement akin to the Civil Rights movement in the US.

You say;
‘We have some positive movements regarding the treatment of hate speech in Japan, particularly regarding that “Kill all Koreans” hate demo that took place last February (god bless the ensuing gaiatsu of international attention for making the GOJ finally take some action to deal with this deservedly embarrassing incident).’

I honestly hope that this is true, however, I fear that the real cause of Abe’s anti-hate-speech anouncement was this;

The wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe received a flood of criticism on her Facebook page after posting a message about attending a South Korean musical.

One of the comments reads, “There are Japanese people who are bitter about your activities related to South Korea,” while another says, “You are careless.”

On May 9, Akie Abe posted a message saying she had seen the musical “Caffeine,” which is now being performed in a theater in Tokyo’s Roppongi district.

Critical comments began pouring in, apparently due to South Korea’s tougher stance toward Japan over sovereignty of the Takeshima islets in the Sea of Japan and the prime minister’s position on issues of history.

On May 10, Akie posted another message, which read, “Even if I am criticized as too optimistic, my thought is that I want to be friendly with every person and country.”

The post had received about 1,900 “likes” as of 7 p.m. that day.
=

Abe’s wife drew a lot of nasty right-wing anti-Korea comments on FB and twitter, and 2ch. after she said that she had enjoyed going to see a S. Korean musical.

I am sure that Abe knows just how dangerous some ultra-nationalists are in real life, and realizing that he has let the djinni out of the bag (and being unable or unwilling to stuff it back in) is afraid that he who lives by the sword of nationalism, may die from it. Maybe he realizes that his nationalism could affect him and his too, and just wants to protect what’s his (after all, ‘How dare they post rude things about my wife!’).

“Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his own wife, Akie, became a victim of anti-Korea
harassment. After Mrs. Abe posted on Facebook on May 9 that she
had enjoyed watching the South Korean musical “Caffeine,” her page was
inundated with critical comments.”

Oh, I like this. So he is only bothered when it affects him and his own. He has indeed reaped what he has sowed.

But when people are even criticizing you for watching a musical from a certain country, then that is when “rightist” is really just an indirect way of saying totalitarian thought control. Reminds me of the Cultural Revolution in China and mob rule/Red Guards.

Of course, it would be too “rude” to our Japanese “hosts” (as we are “guests”) to actually come and out and call a fascist a fascist. And that would contradict postwar branding of Japan as a “pro American democracy”.

But perhaps if we continue to believe that Japan is a western democracy, and keep calling it so, we can at least keep anti democratic trends in check.E.g. You cannot intrude in my home to see a gaijin card, that is not democratic.

That is, of course, until our hosts cross the line and start to repudiate “democracy/human rights” as “alien to Japan”. Which they recently have.

I know there’s a long way to crackdown on hate-speech, and it’s a graving challenge for most democratic society to do so since it’s the matter of fine line between physical conduct and speech. The news show that Japan has got off a good start, as the general public became aware of the problem.
Now, a thorny issue is what if the demonstrator(s) happened to be NJ? Would the police authority treat the incident similarly to Japanese, if h/she got physically bumped or mugged by opposing demonstrators? This remains to be enormous challenge to NJ because 1) the alleged incident has to be visible by everyone at the scene and 2) NJ is susceptible to false information (i.e., ‘stranger-danger’ fallacy) and police scrutiny. This remains to be out of radar by most public media unless until some progressive-minded journalists and/or activists bring up the issue in the public.

I figure all this talk regarding hate speech will blow over after the Olympics are decided…whether or not in favor of Tokyo. Right now, it’s about putting forth the right image, especially after Inose’s remarks which have put a negative light on Tokyo’s bid. Because evidently, there was another anti-Korean rally in Shin Okubo last Sunday:

And with Abe at the reigns, I don’t think these people believe there will be any significant actions taken to curb their activities. In fact, the opposite may be true if and when the LDP win the Upper House in this summer’s elections…

There might not be hate speech laws in Japan, however threats and slurs are punishable offenses. I would suggest any person threatened by these ultra-nationalist groups to identify the culprits (photos, videos) and sue them for threat. Some of the wordings are very explicit and if a Korean person happens to be in direct view of such posters (“good or bad, kill all Koreans”), it is a clear case.
Of course, the best would be to have the support of Japan lawyers association and some civic groups.

>Typical Japan, it’s all just for the sake of showing the outside world something.

I’m gonna have to disagree with you on this. This is not the matter of Japan’s hesitance. Regulating hate speech is not easy, as many countries have legal challenges in implementing hate speech code due to its constitutionality. (i.e., legal history of US in which SCOUTUS struck down many cases involving hate speech at both academic campus and public place.)

In her book “Words that Wound”, a critical legal scholar Mari Matsuda (for reference, she’s teaching at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Campus) suggests that free speech primarily works in favor of powerful corporations and for-profit organizations in democratic society, by historically ignoring victim’s story for its protection. People rarely get punished for incitement unless their speech instigates confrontation or violent threat that will lead to physical injury or damages. They won’t even get arrested unless the police see them getting physical contact with their opponents in confrontation.

It’s pretty hard to define hate speech as criminal offense. However, democratic society could establish the referendum or set the injunction on offensive speeches that will lead to violent conduct, depending on political climate and the degree of tolerance for judicial activism. This seems to be a remote possibility for Japan, though.

I think that you are right, it will all be forgotten as a domestic issue when the olympics are decided. As a result, should Tokyo lose (as it rightfully deserves to), will the Japanese engage in some soul searching as to how their actions are perceived by the outside world, and the effect that this has on Japan? I doubt it. They Japanese were unable to connect the anti-Japanese riots in China with Ishihara’s stirring, and preferred to play the victim whilst at the same time claiming that Chinese riots were proof of Japanese superiority as a culture.
I suspect that if Tokyo doesn’t get the olympics, it will just fuel a fresh round of ‘the world hates us-it takes all of them to keep us down because we are so special’ narrative.
If Tokyo does get the olympics, then we will have 7 years of ‘ganbarre nippon!’, and ‘poor disaster Japan rising from the ashes’ self-indulgent substanceless arrogance to endure, until there is another low medal count for team Japan.

It is not so much hate speech per se, but racism. Racism trumpets the “hate” part. And since Japan is a member state of the UN* is should:

“9. Reaffirms the responsibility of Governments for safeguarding and protecting the rights of individuals within their jurisdiction against crimes perpetrated by racist or xenophobic individuals or groups or agents of the State; 10. Condemns legislation, policies and practices based on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, which are incompatible with democracy, and transparent and accountable governance;11. Reaffirms that democracy and transparent, responsible, accountable and participatory governance at the national, regional and international levels, responsive to the needs and aspirations of the people, are essential to effectively prevent, combat and eradicate racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance;”

Japan doesn’t seem to be holding up this part of their obligation too well…what about the rest:

“99. Calls upon States, in accordance with their human rights obligations, to declare illegal and to prohibit all organizations based on ideas or theories of superiority of one race or group of persons of one colour or ethnic origin, or which attempt to justify or promote national, racial and religious hatred and discrimination in any form, and to adopt immediate and positive measures designed to eradicate all incitement to, or acts of, such discrimination;”

“102. Also calls upon States not to resort to profiling founded on grounds of discrimination prohibited by international law, including on racial, ethnic or religious grounds, and to prohibit it by law; ”

@John K, all well and good, but there is little evidence that Japan has ever strived to become more than a democracy “on paper” that would be obliged to actually follow through on their international obligations as a UN member. The voices that disrespect Western democracies for allegedly taking the concept of personal liberties too far and should be a warning example for Japan are numerous. Yet I have to even once hear critical thought about the state of Japanese democracy in the media.

It is hard for those Japanese who understand the actual state of Japanese democracy to find an audience when it seems that the majority (secretly, because this is Japan) fears or condescends it as a reaction to the bizarre image of Western countries painted in the J-Media.

Quite. Racism is part of the reason why free speech is not absolutely perfect in any world. It is an act of defamation, no matter how defenders make an excuse for its rationalization like Osaka mayor Hashimoto. Matsuda defines hate speech as: 1) “message communicating racial inferiority”; 2)”message directed against a historically oppressed group”; and 3) “message that is persecutory, hateful, and degrading.” So, yes, racism undermines the principle of free speech by affecting the legal entitlements of those who are vulnerable to the eyes of Japanese society (i.e., women, NJ, people with disabilities). Recent move to revise national constitution driven from the idea that individual liberties and human rights will undermine Japanese society is a clear example of trickery. It gives authorities, elitists, corporations, haters more power to ostracize cultures of others for total control of ideas in the marketplace— without taking responsibility for the consequence of speech they make.

I was just watching this youtube vid of the zaitikukai marching last weekend (where it appears that an anti-zaitokukai direct action group was also present-leading to some violence- not in the video), and I noticed that the marchers appear to be carrying a couple of German and Turkish flags along with all their usual Japanese ones.

These guys carrying multiple flags are believers of both Japanese nationalism and “Pan-Turanism”.

This whole Turania thing is more of the rare types of far-right nationalism and more extreme than “regular-zaitokukai” types. The “Turan nationalists” are not Japanese and are mainly made up of a small central Asian and middle eastern people. More extreme than the the current state of J-nationalists in that some Turanists like the Grey Wolves, have been carrying out terrorist attacks in the not so distant past.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Wolves

The idea of Pan-Turanism is the belief that the Japanese have linguistic and cultural similarities with those of central asia and parts of the middle east. Some are true while others are made up for propaganda purposes. In a sense some middle-east extremists and some J-nationalists feel a common bond between each other for that reason. But only some J-nationalists though, I doubt the run of the mill J-nationalist would feel any sense of “brotherhood” with an NJ though.

The only problem with the Pan-Turanism ideology is that it conflicts with the more popular view of “no NJ relations” amongst J-nationalists though. Since many Japanese believe they are so unique that they have no relations to NJ. Not sure where the Japanese and Turanian brotherhood idea fits in though since Japan is all about “we are unique”.

In my opinion, after reading through Pan-Turanian ideologies and the people involved, I would think that if Pan-Turanists and J-Nationalists joining together and form a new party to run Japan than it would probably make Hashimoto’s party look moderate. This is mainly due to Pan-Turanists history of violence and terrorism.

The run of the mill J-nationalists are still mainly just squeamish types hiding behind the computer screen. While the Turanian folks takes a step further.

@Jim (#20) I wouldn’t be surprised if they sympathize with Nazi theory but are too shallow to understand that the current German flag was not the Nazi Germany one.
I mentioned before that as a German in Japan, I’m apparently seen as some sort of “premium Gaijin” – whenever people ask me what my nationality is (the Kuroneko courier, the taxi driver, or people I meet out, and I tell them I’m from Germany, there is a very obvious reaction of relief – followed by creepy comments such as “we are friends because the Germans and Japanese fought together!”
And that’s just the regular people, if I count in the taxi drivers (I know better than to count taxi Drivers as a representational demographic for public opinion, but still) who told me that they love “General Rommel” and say that Hitler did a lot of good things, and Japan also had a great leader, namely Tanaka Kakuei, but unfortunately nowadays all the politicians are weaklings, I could get the impression that many Japanese have a very skewed view not only on their own, but on world history as well.
I guess I shouldn’t tell them that if Hitler got his way, the chances of the Japanese (or Asians in general) to become anything else than slaves for his “Arian race” would have been very slim. There is not exactly a lot of 6ft blonde, blue eyed Japanese around. Oh the dangerous ignorance of history.

Thanks for the information. Very informative. Are individual zatokukai members carrying the wrong flag due to ignorance, or is this indeed a sign of much darker developments within the Japanese extreme right?

@ Markus #22

Thank you for your reply. Since Japan’s flag hasn’t changed from the wartime version, many may well mistakenly believe that the current German flag is likewise, the same as Germanies wartime flags.
It must surely be grating to be subjected to endless the micro-aggressive assumption that by being German, you must implicitly respect Nazi generals, and by extension, still regard yourself as an ‘ally’ from a war that finished almost 70 years ago. Simply insane attitude, which demonstrates so well why Germanies neighbors feel no fear, and Japan only has disputes with its.

@Jim – it is grating and hard to keep polite when being patronised like this. In German schools, most of history education is spent on discussing the Weimar republic, the Nazi government, and the meaning of shared guilt of the latter generations, in order to educate people about the beginnings and possible warning signs of totalitarian and fascist systems. I think that this education makes it impossible for me to live in Japan, because to me the level of ignorance of the regular people of sinister things ( the government, the uyoku, the lack of critical thought, the absence of democratic ideals, etc. ) constantly reminds me of what I learned about dangerous developments that led up to WWII and the Holocaust. I guess this stuff is easier to ignore for people with a lack of education in 20th century history.